PLEASE Hold Down the Fort

D

donhardin

11-man fan
Guys and Gals and children of all ages,

I implore you to keep things going while I am away. I am headed to Sturgis SD for the 70th Anniversary STURGIS Rally.

http://www.sturgis.com

Lord willing, I be back to Texas Sunday August 15th.

Thanks,

Don Hardin
Abilene
 
Mr. Hardin

PLEASE be careful. Up here in Montana we have been burying the bikers at a pace of about 4-5 @ week since early July. Its been a really bad summer for the riders of those two-wheeled death machines.

Sturgis packs are roaring thru all over the state right now, and that usually just increases the death toll.
 
I travel west and north of Abilene with my job as a field photographer for insurance purposes. I go west as far as El Paso and North as far as Stratford. Summer times brings out tons of bikes. I am seeing more and more that are loaded down and I always suspect that they might well be headed for Sturgis.

I was going up to Lubbock this week and three bikers got behind me at Sweetwater. They finally passed me somewhere around Snyder. They pulled over at a roadside park near Post and I pulled in behind them. I told therm that my curiosity had the best of me and I just had to know where they were headed. Two men and a woman, they were from Corpus Christi. They had spent the night in Junction and were thinking they would stop and spend the night in Amarillo but were making such good time they might go farther. Yes, they were going to Sturgis. It is their sixth straight year to ride from Corpus Christi to Sturgis. They were meeting up with more bikers along the way in a couple of places. They said they were only going to be at Sturgis a day or maybe two then they were splitting up and going elsewhere. One was going to Wyoming It is a very cool thing to do I suppose.

mtjack, despite the "cool factor", the "dangerous factor" is far greater. I will heed your words of caution. There are lots of bikers now days that are good salt of the earth kind of people. Law abiding and very safety conscience minded folks. Unfortunately, that isn't enough sometimes. The other side of the coin is there are still the stereotypical "hellions" that have always been around and will always be around I am afraid.

Sturgis has hosted this event for a long time. As a matter of fact, this is the 70th year. The scenery is beautiful and there are lots of wide open spaces to ride. The town of Sturgis has a normal population of somewhere around 6000 to 6500 folks. During bike week they have had as many as 650000 "friendly" visitors. I love motorcycles. I DO NOT HAVE ONE......yet. Rode back in high school when the earth was still cooling down.

Sturgis has lots of bars and there will be a ton of bikers in every bar and that in itself leads to many problems. There always will be the guy or gal that feels the need to showout and one thing leads to another.....

I will be on my "good behavior". Yes that is different from "best behavior" but I will talk up Texas Six-Man football to anyone willing to listen.

Later

Don Hardin
Abilene
 
I am back in Texas and back to the daily grind. Had a great time in South Dakota. Lots of crazy bikes there and quite a few crazy people there doing crazy things. The estimated crowd was 600.000 on the low side to 800.00 to 850,000 on the high side. Whatever the number winds up, it was a week to remember. Started out hot like 91 to 93 degrees a couple of days but by the end of the week it was around 68 and a little rain. My first rally. I hope to go back.

Don Hardin
Abilene
 
So awesome. Glad you are back.

I spent several summers in Montana and driving home in August was always a trip. Thousands of bikes and bike rest areas. I have always wanted to go to Sturgis, although I don't have a bike. Classic American experience....
 
Great to hear that you are back and safe.

Thats a great line about the "cool" factor vs the "dangerous" factor.

So many of the bikers that pull off the interstate to fuel in our little town are from the retired age group now that it is almost unusual to see a "classic" biker anymore. Rumor has it that doctors/dentists at Sturgis are not an issue during the rally 'cause so many of them are there on their bikes.
 
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